Insights for retaining counsel.
Short, practical notes on the financial questions that come up in family law and commercial litigation, written by the partners for the attorneys who retain them.
Before temporary support: the six records I need first
Six record groups that let a forensic CPA establish current income, supported expenses, and the real cash gap before a Florida temporary support hearing.
Personal or enterprise goodwill: what survives the owner?
How Florida divorce valuations separate personal from enterprise goodwill, test which earnings can transfer, and read a noncompete or an offer without being misled.
Fair value or fair market value: read before the buyout
Why fair value and fair market value can produce different buyout results in Florida, and which agreements, rights, premises, and dates the expert needs before starting.
Business owner income: which add-backs belong in support?
How to test a business owner’s add-backs, personal benefits, distributions, tax distributions, and retained earnings without counting income twice in a support analysis.
Suspect the bookkeeper? Start before the records disappear
When bookkeeping raises suspicion, preserve the transaction history, verify payments independently, and separate questioned amounts from proven loss.
Lifestyle analysis: what did the marriage actually cost?
How a forensic CPA reconstructs what a marriage actually cost, separating spending from transfers, financing, and one-time purchases, and showing how the household paid for it.
Dissipation and waste: follow the money, then the facts
A forensic CPA explains how to investigate alleged marital waste in Florida, separate transfers and market losses from questioned spending, and quantify the result without counting anything twice.
The financial affidavit: fix the errors before filing
The errors that appear in almost every Florida financial affidavit, from pay frequency to duplicated expenses, and how a forensic CPA fixes them before they drive the case.
Divorce valuation discounts: when the facts support them
When control and marketability discounts belong in a Florida divorce valuation, what Erp and Miller actually decided, and the evidence that has to support any adjustment.
Buy-sell agreements: does the formula set the divorce value?
How to analyze a buy-sell formula in a Florida divorce, compare it with the business’s economic value, and identify the contract questions counsel has to resolve first.
Lost profits or lost business value: choose the right measure
Lost profits or lost business value: how to choose the damages measure that matches the injury in a Florida commercial case, treat costs correctly, and avoid counting the same future earnings twice.
Samons Harris 